Nearly six years ago, in the surreal days after Hurricane Katrina, two groups of New Orleanians walked westward across the Danziger Bridge, leaving eastern New Orleans and heading toward Gentilly. Seawater still filled large swaths of the city, helicopters hovered overhead, and uncertainty flooded everyone's mind.

At about 9 a.m., a panicked call came across a police radio: something about gunfire, something about officers "down under" the Danziger. A Budget rental truck full of New Orleans police officers barreled onto the bridge and came to an abrupt halt. A chorus of gunfire erupted. In a span of mere moments, dozens of lives changed forever.

It has taken more than five years for the world to get a clearer picture of what occurred on Sept. 4, 2005. Some facts are indisputable: two people, 40-year-old Ronald Madison and 17-year-old James Brissette, died from police gunfire. Four other people were wounded. But so many questions remain: What really happened out there? And why?

Beginning this week, a city and its police force will begin to get more answers. Five of the New Orleans police officers on the bridge that day will go to trial in federal court on various civil rights charges, ranging from participating in an unjustified killing, to lying and concocting an elaborate cover-up that would persist for years.

Story by

Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi, staff writers

Five other officers tied to the case have pleaded guilty, their confessions bringing forth shocking new allegations: that they held secret meetings for officers to coordinate their stories, planted evidence and fabricated witnesses. A sixth defendant in the case, a retired NOPD detective accused of assisting in a cover-up, will be tried separately later this summer.

Defense attorneys for the officers dispute the core of the prosecutors' case, saying their clients did not shoot intentionally at unarmed civilians and, therefore, didn't scheme to whitewash what happened. They argue that any deficiencies in the immediate response to the shooting, as well as the subsequent investigation, must be seen in the context of the post-Katrina time period, when thorough police work was close to impossible.

View full sizeTimes-Picayune archive imagesFive current or former New Orleans police officers are on trial in the Danziger Bridge case. They are, from top left: Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius, Arthur Kaufman and Anthony Villavaso.

This is a high-stakes case for the federal government. It's one of the largest police-abuse cases in America since the prosecution of Los Angeles police officers in the early 1990s in the infamous Rodney King beating.

It is also a bellwether case for a beleaguered, long-troubled police force, the latest in a string of federal civil rights prosecutions against cops. And for the city, it will serve as a re-opening of wounds, a window into a hellish post-Katrina world that many are ready to put behind them.

The trial, which begins Wednesday, will provide the latest twist in a long, winding narrative that began that day on the bridge.

At first, when news of the shootout squawked over police radios, officers cheered, heralding the incident as a sign police were finally taking the city back from chaos. Officers said they were under fire and justified in shooting at the civilians. Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, a longtime NOPD detective, wrote a police report that reflected that view.

A year later, the police version of events would be turned on its head when then-District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office indicted seven officers on murder and attempted murder charges. The "Danziger 7" marched into Orleans Parish jail to be booked on an especially cold morning in early January 2007. More than a hundred supporters -- mostly officers clad all in black -- lined the streets, holding signs aloft, calling the men heroes and thanking them for their service.

The state charges were eventually tossed out by an Orleans Parish criminal court judge who cited prosecutorial misconduct. Though federal prosecutors had been keeping a close eye on the case at the time, their inquiry did not begin in earnest until the fall of 2008, shortly after the state charges fizzled. Last year, the guilty pleas began to trickle out in federal court.

On Wednesday, for the first time since last July's indictment, four of the five defendants will be able to shed their jail jumpsuits and sit side by side. Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, former officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and officer Anthony Villavaso have been in federal custody since the charges were filed.

In court, they will be joined by Kaufman, the now-retired detective, who has been free since posting bond. Across the courtroom aisle, two prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice -- Barbara "Bobbi" Bernstein and Cindy Chung -- will argue their case alongside Theodore Carter, a prosecutor with U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office. All of the defendants face potential life sentences in prison, if convicted.

Attorneys have been largely mum in the weeks before the trial, wary of making public comments in the immediate run-up to the case.

Defense attorney Frank DeSalvo said only: "We are ready for trial. We hope that the truth comes out and the public will understand what happened."

A spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment for this story, as did Letten.

The Katrina Danziger Bridge case explained: videoThe Times-Picayune's Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy explain the background and stategies that will be employed as the feds prosecute five former New Orleans police department members for the multiple shootings on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

The Justice Department's civil rights section, which has spearheaded this case, prosecutes approximately 50 to 100 cases of alleged police abuses each year, with most cases stemming from allegations of excessive force, said Rachel Harmon, a former Justice Department attorney.

Harmon, who teaches law at the University of Virginia and occasionally does consulting work for the Justice Department, said police cases present unique legal obstacles. For one, officers are acutely aware of how the criminal justice system works and have significant experience testifying in trials. Secondly, the public is often sympathetic to law enforcement and reluctant to convict them of crimes.

"These are people we depend on to provide safety," Harmon said.

THE DEFENDANTS AND THE CHARGES

KENNETH BOWEN: 13 counts

6 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law in the fatal shooting of James Brissette and wounding of four others on the bridge. Bowen is also accused of kicking and stomping on Ronald Madison after he was fatally shot by another officer.

2 counts of using a weapon during commission of a crime of violence.

1 count of conspiracy.

2 counts of obstruction of justice.

2 counts of civil rights conspiracy.

ROBERT FAULCON: 12 counts

6 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law in fatal shootings of James Brissette and Ronald Madison, as well as wounding of four people.

3 counts of using a weapon during commission of a crime of violence.

1 count of conspiracy.

1 count of obstruction of justice.

1 count of civil rights conspiracy.

ROBERT GISEVIUS: 11 counts

5 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law in fatal shooting of James Brissette and wounding of four others.

2 counts of using a weapon during commission of a crime of violence.

1 count of conspiracy.

1 count of obstruction of justice.

2 counts of civil rights conspiracy.

ARTHUR KAUFMAN: 10 counts

4 counts of falsification of records in a federal investigation.

3 counts of false statements.

2 counts of civil rights conspiracy for false prosecution.

1 count of conspiracy.

ANTHONY VILLAVASO: 10 counts

5 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law for fatal shooting of James Brissette and wounding of four others.

2 counts of using a weapon during commission of crime of violence.

1 count of conspiracy.

1 count of obstruction of justice.

1 count of civil rights conspiracy.

ALREADY PLEADED GUILTY

Officer ROBERT BARRIOS

1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice

Former officer IGNATIUS HILLS

1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice

1 count of misprision of a felony

Officer MICHAEL HUNTER

1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice

1 count of misprision of a felony

Former officer JEFFREY LEHRMANN

1 count of misprision of a felony

Former Lt. MICHAEL LOHMAN

1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice

One key component in such cases is often the testimony of cooperating officers, Harmon said. The five officers who have pleaded guilty thus far, and perhaps other current officers, are expected to testify against the defendants.

With its fatal consequences, the allegations of a cover-up, the connection to a broader pattern of police abuse, mixed in with the impact of Katrina, "all of that comes together here to make (the Danziger Bridge case) a very significant, symbolic case," Harmon said.

Exactly what happened on the bridge will be the core dispute of the trial. This much is known: The bulk of the shooting happened on the east side of the bridge, after the Budget rental truck came to a stop.

Brissette was killed. Susan Bartholomew, a 38-year-old mother, had part of her right arm blown off. Her husband, Leonard, was shot in the head, while her teenage daughter, Lesha, was struck four times. Jose Holmes, a 19-year-old nephew, was hit three times in the abdomen, once in the hand and arm, and in the left jaw.

The officers on trial admit to firing their weapons -- including assault rifles from their personal collections -- soon after getting out of the rental truck. They insist they did so only after being shot at first.

Members of the Bartholomew family dispute this, saying they jumped behind a concrete barrier on the side of the bridge to escape a barrage of bullets fired without warning. The five officers who pleaded guilty support the civilians' contention, saying after the shooting stopped they saw no guns near the victims.

Bowen, one of the defendants, said in his official NOPD statements that right after the shooting, he kicked guns off the bridge, near where the Bartholomew family lay bleeding. But these alleged weapons were never recovered.

From the east side of the bridge, some officers shot at another group of fleeing people, which included Ronald Madison and his older brother Lance.

Some of the officers quickly got back in the truck and drove to the top of the bridge. Three officers jumped into a car driven by a Louisiana state trooper. The car sped down the Gentilly side of the bridge. From the car, one officer, Faulcon, fired his shotgun at Ronald Madison, who collapsed in the driveway of a motel near the foot of the bridge.

His brother was quickly surrounded by NOPD officers and state troopers. He was arrested and accused of shooting at police. More than a year later, a grand jury later cleared Madison of the charges.

As part of the federal case, all of the defendants are accused of false prosecution for framing Madison for a crime they knew he did not commit.

View full sizeTimes-Picayune archive imagesFive former New Orleans police officers have already pleaded guilty in connection with the Danziger Bridge case. They are, from top left: Robert Barrios, Ignatius Hills, Michael Hunter, Jeffrey Lehrmann and Michael Lohman.

Defense attorneys have long signaled that at trial they will hammer on court statements Lance Madison made after the incident. Those accounts support their clients' contention that other people were firing guns that morning.

In a preliminary hearing in state court in September 2005, Madison testified that a group of people he described as teenagers were firing weapons on the bridge before the police arrived.

"The little boys were shooting at us first," Madison said in that hearing, although he later quibbled that the group could have contained boys and girls. He estimated their age at between 14 and 18 years old.

In federal court hearings, prosecutors have discounted Madison's recollection, saying the gunfire he thought was coming from civilians below him on the bridge actually was coming from police.

Unlike in the state court case, the defendants aren't charged with murder and attempted murder. Instead, the charges are based on federal civil rights statutes.

The most serious charge, levied against four of the officers on trial, is the charge of deprivation of rights under color of law, which alleges they unjustly killed or wounded people on the bridge.

That charge comes with a willfullness requirement, which requires that defendants know they did something wrong, said Harmon, the professor and former prosecutor. Proving the charge "can often be a significant challenge," she said.

In this case, prosecutors must be able to prove that the officers were aware of the wrongdoing. The alleged cover-up, if proven, could allow prosecutors to more easily reach that threshold, Harmon said.

For the New Orleans Police Department, the trial comes at a pivotal point in its history. Four officers have been convicted, and two acquitted, in federal civil rights probes within the past six months.

Another NOPD misconduct case from the Katrina time period is scheduled for this fall, and several other federal probes into the police force remain open. In addition, a separate wing of the Department of Justice recently completed a scathing assessment of the NOPD, the first step toward a consent decree that is expected to mandate reforms in the department.

Capt. Michael Glasser, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, said the six years since the Danziger shooting have been tough ones for many on the police force. He believes about half of today's police force has no ties to the Katrina-era NOPD, and has been unfairly criticized by the federal government and the media.

"Certainly, we did some good things during Katrina," Glasser said. "As a police department, we have unfortunately been overshadowed by those few events and have never been able to crawl out from under that shadow. Here it is, six years later, and we will relive it again. We will be the focal point of national television. It is hard to get away from. It is an odyssey. It never stops."